Gustaf ellstrom



Patented May 30, I899. 12. ELLSTROM.

BICYCLE. (Application filed Dec. 30, 1896.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED I STATES PATENT OEEIcE.'

GUSTAF ELLSTROM, OF FITCHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MARY ELIZABETH JOHNSON, OF SAME PLACE.

BICYCLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,749, dated May 30, 1899. Application filed December 30, 1896. Serial No. 617 531. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUSTAF ELLSTROM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fitchburg, in the county of WVorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bicycles, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same, and in which Figure 1 represents a front elevation of a portion of the steering-post of a bicycle, showing the inner rotating tube with the handle-- bar stem held therein. Fig. 2 represents the same view as Fig. 1, but with the clamping nuts held upon the screw-threaded end of the tube shown in central vertical sectional view. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view on line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the different figures. I

My invention relates to the steering-head of a bicycle, and particularly to the device for holding the handlebar stem in the forktube of the steering-head; and it consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter described, and set forth in the annexed claim.

Referring to the drawings, A denotes a porin order to render the end of the tube 0 elastie and compressible. The upper end of the tube C is also provided with. a screw-thread C and on one side of the screw-threaded section is a shallow groove 0 parallel with the axis of the tube.

D denotes a 'nut carried upon the tube 0 and provided on its under side with the concave surface D, adapted to bear against the balls of the upper ball-bearing of the steering-head in the usual manner. The nut D is provided with a milled edge D in order to allow the nut to be turned on the tube 0 in order to adjust the ball-bearing in the steeringhead in the usual and well-known manner, this construction being now in common use.

E denotes a washer resting upon the up per surface of the adjusting-nut D and having a spur E entering the groove C as shown in Fig. 3, in order to hold the washer from turning on the tube. Bearing upon the upper surface of the washer E is a check-nut F, having its upper surface recessed or cupshaped, as at F.' The extreme upper end of the tube 0 is tapered or beveled, as at G, Fig. 2, and surrounding the beveled surface G is a collar G, having an interior beveled surface Gr bearing upon the beveled surface G. The lower side of the collar G is provided with a flange G which enters the'cup-shaped recess F in the check-nut Fand is provided with an interior screw-thread G which engages the screw-thread O on the tube 0. The check-nut F and the collar G are provided with polygonal peripheries to receive a wrench. The handle-bar stern B is provided with a shal low groove B, and the beveled end of the tube 0 is curved inwardly, as at H, in alinement with the groove 0 so as to form a short interior rib H, which enters the groove B in the handle-bar stem in order to hold the stem from rotating in the tube 0 and maintain the handle-bar at right angles with the line of the bicycle-frame.

When the stem B is inserted in the tube 0, the collar G is screwed down upon the tube 0, drawing its beveled surface Gr over the beveled surface G of the tube 0, thereby compressing the end of the tube against the handle-bar stem and holding it from longitudi nal movement within the tube 0. The flange G enters Within the recess F of the checknut F far enough to break joints, but leaving a sufficient space, as at F, between the edge of the flange and the bottom of the reness of the tube 0, caused by beveling its outer surface, renders it practicable to properly shape the rib H to accurately fit the groove B.

I am aware that it is not new to hold the handle-bar stem from longitudinal movement by compressing the beveled end of the forktube by an interiorly-beveled nut or to hold the stem from rotating in the fork-tube. By my construction I place the ball-bearing adjusting-nut, the check-nut by which it is held from rotating, and the beveled tightening-n ut i one above the other on the screw' threaded tube and in close proximity, making the intermediate check-nut cup-shaped and providing the tightening-nut with a flange which enters the recess in the check nut and covers an intervening space between the tightening and check nuts, so that the check-nut is capable of moving on the fork-tube to allow the 1 ball-bearing nut D to be adjusted. I thereby bring all the nuts into a compact space GUSTAF ELLSTROM.

Witnesses:

ALEX. N. SMITH, JOHN LIND IoLM. 

